


Eyes On The Skies Ahead Now

by Memories_of_the_Shadows



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Body Swap, Event Fill, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, In a way, Insecurity, It's not a mistake for long, Jutsu Gone Wrong, Lesbian Character, Make me choose (girls), Meet-Cute, Mistaken Identity, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Out of Body Experiences, Referenced at least, Sexuality Crisis, Sort Of, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, body switching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 19:24:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15468336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memories_of_the_Shadows/pseuds/Memories_of_the_Shadows
Summary: Maybe she lost focus.  Maybe she was distracted.Either way, she did not expect to end up staring down at a pale lilac jacket sleeve that is mostdefinitelyher own.





	Eyes On The Skies Ahead Now

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Who's Going To Stop Me Now?" by Aviators. I seriously love all this guy's songs.

Ino is training in her more obscure clan techniques when the accident happens.

Nothing should have been wrong, Ino had only gotten to the meditation stage, but she’s been _off_ since Sai realized he didn’t have commitment issues, he just didn’t do romance, and Ino realized she had wanted Sakura to chose her over Sasuke for more than he was a traitor and an asshole and their stupid competition. They were still and always friends, even though Ino was realizing more and more that she’d wanted more. (She didn’t expect to that Sakura would chose _both_ her teammates over Ino, but at least they seem to be happy.)

Maybe she lost focus. Maybe she was distracted.

Either way, she did not expect to end up staring down at a pale lilac jacket sleeve that is most _definitely_ her own.

A piercing scream comes from just over the hedge and Ino clumsily--her body not responding the way she’s used to, but she’s used to _that_ too and moves better than whoever is stuck in _her_ body--crashes through it to see her body and its newest occupant rolling limply on the ground.

“Hey, calm down, we should go back to normal in a couple of minutes,” she says, and it sounds so strange. She ignores it with the ease of long practise but the person stares at her in dumbfounded horror.

“Wha-what is going _o-on_?” And, oh, _that_ is strange. Ino hs never heard anyone but her father speak with her vocal cords. She doesn’t think she’s ever been so soft and hesitant before in her _life_ , but she’s heard recordings and that is what her voice sounds like.

The person squirms and folds arms over Ino’s bare stomach and she realizes that she’s just been staring for an embarrassingly long time. “Sorry, I’m a Yamanaka and, uh, yeah, sorry about this.” They shake her head hard enough to whap themselves in the face with Ino’s ponytail and she fights off a laugh. It won’t help the situation. “Hopefully this should only last 10 minutes or so. If it’s like my other techniques.”

“A-ano, I know who you are, Ino-san.” And, well, damn. Ino’d hoped that she’d be able to get away without having to fess up that it was the Yamanaka _heiress_ making stupid rookie mistakes. Also, she doesn’t know who this body belongs to, so she’s behind the curve on this one.

She hopes the embarrassment doesn’t show on this face--though the slight warmth to the cheeks doesn’t make her too optimistic--and it’s bad enough that she’ll have to go to her dad to fix it if it doesn’t reverse soon.

“Haha, yeah, sorry there’s not really a mirror around. So, you know me, do I know you?” Maybe she’s spent too long with Sai, that’s some cringeworthy social maneuvering, but is there really a _polite_ way to ask whose body it is that you’ve randomly taken over? If it exists, her dad’s certainly never found it.

“It’s Hinata.” That explains it. Ino and Hinata’s lives were pretty parallel, similar times, similar places, but never really intersecting.

In the Academy, Hinata had always been the odd one out, the only girl she knew that didn’t like talking about Sasuke; didn’t like talking at all. Even Sakura had enjoyed gossip the moment someone was willing to actually be nice to her.

Even after they graduated, even though their skills were complimentary--Ino-Shika-Cho a capture team in the making, and Team 8 practically _born_ to be hunter-trackers--and their sensei engaged in an embarrassingly obvious love affair, they had never worked together.

And then Ino followed her dad into T-and-I and Hinata, well, no one had expected Hinata to do what she did. Ino shoves away the slight burn of bitter jealousy, Hinata didn’t deserve that--not with how hard she’d worked--and neither did Ino. So what if Hinata gets to work with Sakura so much more than Ino ever gets to see her best friend? Ino’s _totally_ over that crush. Any day now. What does Sai know about it anyways?

Ino may know too much to be allowed out of Konoha anymore--just a hazard of being a little _too_ good at her job, thanks for the warning, Ibiki--but she doesn’t think she’d really like the constant missions that keep Shikamaru, Sai, and Chouji away for months at a time. Hinata, though, likes them, or so she’s heard, and the more reliable gossips even say that she’s good at them.

“Well,” she says with a sinking feeling, counting back the minutes. “I think that this isn’t going to fix itself.”

Ino’s face and Hinata’s politely horrified expression don’t really mix well, but Ino feels the same.

////////////

Hinata clutches her jacket to her stomach and shivers at the unfamiliar feel of the fleece against her stomach--how does Ino _stand_ it? She can feel everyone’s eyes on them--and follows Ino to T-and-I, keeping up with the easy conversation they have going with more attention than she would have thought herself currently capable of.

This was not what she was expecting when she woke up this morning--though Hinata can’t help but wonder if that’s a good thing--being in the Village always sent her back to her childhood, and she longs for the comfort and anonymity of her ANBU mask and uniform.

If she was wearing those now, no one would look twice at her, they wouldn’t expect to see Ino and get Hinata, and be _disappointed_ by that.

Outside of it, everyone still judged her by her clan name and her childhood reputation. She wasn’t that person anymore, had tried hard to be someone better, but the weight of people’s gaze on her made her feel like a cracked piece of coal that would never turn into a diamond.

It wasn’t healthy, according to her old teammates and sensei, but she’d rather stay ANBU than brave everyday barefaced and judged for it. It helped that she had actually found she was rather good at it.

Ino seemed to have no issue with the stares, just strolling along with her head held high and her arms bare. Well, Hinata’s arms. That Ino was currently in possession of. (This entire situation made her head spin.)

Hinata would’ve worn long sleeves under her jacket if she’d known this would happen; not that she would have guessed this could happen in a hundred years. She cringes to see the white, raised dots of her jyuuken training scars clearly visible under the mid-morning sun, but Ino hasn’t made any mention of them the entire time, hasn’t even given an indication that she noticed all of Hinata’s scars.

Too kind of her, really, especially when Hinata can tell that Ino doesn’t have anything of the sort.

It is _strange_ watching Ino walk in her body, it wasn’t even like looking in the mirror because Ino was the most confident, friendly person Hinata has ever met aside from Naruto and that just radiates through her entire being. Ino, just by being in there, has made Hinata’s body look beautiful in the way she stands and walks, completely different. Self-assured, and all the other things Hinata was not without a mask. (Is this how she is in ANBU? No wonder so few people recognize her under the mask.)

Kiba passes by and she nearly groans when he does a double-take. She loves him dearly, but that wolfish grin of his has never meant anything less than mischief.

He whistles at Ino, shrill enough to make everyone turn and stare--Hinata fights the urge to open the ground beneath her feet and disappear--and says, “I knew ya liked blondes, Hinata!” He winks as he passes, still at Ino. Hinata nearly chokes on the embarrassment. (She would have thought that at least her old teammates would have realized that someone as poised and confident as Ino wasn’t Hinata even if she looked and smelled like Hinata.)

Then the pieces connect with the joke, and Hinata waits for the rush of heat and blood to her face at the innuendo. She had barely managed to talk to her friends about maybe not having a preference and Kiba thinks that she could have actually _asked_ someone to go home with her? Some like _Ino_? Does he need to get checked over by Sakura, was he training with Lee again? (He always came out of training with Lee with a concussion, but, to be fair, so did almost everyone else too.)

The only blush that rises is a light dust of pink. Of course Ino would be so lucky, to have a body that doesn’t paint her every feeling in red and pink on her face and neck.

(Well, not right now. Right now, Ino’s face is a bright, burning red because _Hinata’s_ body has no such compunctions about that kind of betrayal. She maybe sees what Kurenai means by calling it cute, though Ino has the audacity to look surprised at the blush.)

“D-don’t _say_ that, Kiba!” “What do you think you _know_ , Inuzuka!”

Their words tumble together and Kiba goes from playful to hunted and confused because while the tones and word choices are familiar, the person saying them is not. Hinata can sympathize, she’s still a little confused too, and she’s the one _living_ it.

Ino is so lucky, she has a doting family, warm looks, a body that she didn’t have to be ashamed of. Hinata has had to work for every single thing she has now, and she still doesn’t feel like she deserves any of it when she blushes.

She’s not really blushing now, and it feels like the first time she was given her mask.

“I don’t know how you live like this,” Ino mutters to Hinata, covering her face with her hands. It’s probably the first thing Ino’s said to her about the swap that wasn’t just bland assurances, and it makes her giggle. It sounds just like what Hinata would have thought she would say, and the giggle comes out a little fonder than she expects.

“We should, um, ano, get coffee after-- well, when this is, uh, fixed, I guess!” The words blurt out by themselves in a rush. She doesn’t really _know_ Ino--aside from today, talking about flowers and hobbies, which had been more fun than Hinata’s had a long time--not like she knows Kiba, Shino, not even like she knows Sakura.

But she’d _like_ too. She kind of hopes Ino feels the same, but no one can read her every thought and feeling on her face right now, so the only better time to be rejected would be when she’s working and, well, she’s not _Genma_. Not nearly as confident for one.

Ino gapes at Hinata, her face so red that if it was snowing she’d probably be steaming. (That’s happened before, Shino never lets her forget it.) “Oh, Kami, Sai is never going to let me live this down,” she whispers.

Akamaru and Kiba are barking at each other, and Hinata can tell they’re both confused, but she’s not going to clear it up for them until they’re somewhere private. (Especially not after he tried to embarrass her. In _public_. He’ll get what’s coming to him their next training session.) Her stomach shifts nervously, and her biceps twitch, and she’s thankful that Ino gave her the jacket even if it mean her scars are on display.

“Yeah, sure, coffee. Or whatever you’d like. Just…” Ino grimaces, face still an unhealthy shade of red, and waves between them. “Y’know, after.” She determinedly doesn’t look at Hinata, but grabs her hand and starts off towards T-and-I at a quicker pace than before.

Hinata sighs happily, hiding a smile behind her free hand--blushing or not, she’s still shy--and says dreamily, “A-after.”

**Author's Note:**

> So in Uzushi0's latest event, I saw body swap and I'm just like "Yamanaka". And who better to pair with Ino than my go-to favorite Naruto girl Hinata? Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!
> 
> Come visit me at my [tumblr](https://sachinighte.tumblr.com/)!


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